Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan rise to 209,000 barrels per day

Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan rose 4.1 percent in November from a year earlier to 6.27 million barrels, or 209,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the first increase in two months, according to government data. Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, quoted the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency as saying, in a preliminary report, that as Japan's fifth-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 5.6 percent of the nation's total crude imports, compared with 6.1 percent in the same month last year. Japan's overall imports of crude oil grew 13.3 percent year-on-year to 111.64 million barrels (3.72 million bpd) the first gain in two months. Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 85.9 percent of the total, up 4.4 percentage points from a year before. Saudi Arabia remains in the top spot, with imports from the kingdom rising 13.5 percent from a year earlier to 1.28 million bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 966,000 bpd, up 33.8 percent. Qatar ranked third with 447, 000 bpd and Russia fourth with 240,000 bpd, respectively. During Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Kuwait in August, Abe and H.H. Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti Prime Minister, welcomed Kuwait's commitment to supplying oil to Japan in a continuous and stable manner. They also welcomed the energy cooperation between the two countries, particularly joint investment in refinery projects in third countries.